Meet the Past: What would you ask Langston Hughes?

Click on Add a new comment to pose a question to Langston Hughes, the Missouri-born writer who became a leading light of the Harlem Renaissance. If your question is chosen, Library Director Crosby Kemper III will ask it on your behalf.

Mr. Hughes A New Day and A Dream Deferred are two of my favorite poems. What was your inspiration for writing A New Day. If you were asked to recite a poem for the Presidental Inauguration of Barack Obama, which poem do you think you would have chosen and why

Describe your grandmother you stayed with in Lawrence, KS who used to put you to bed under the bloodstained shawl of your grandfather, killed at Harpers' Ferry. How were you influenced by the jazz clubs in Paris when you jumped ship?